starts with arthritis pain and a choice. take tylenol or take aleve, the #1 recommended pain reliever by orthopedic doctors. just two aleve can keep pain away all day. back to the news. good morning. i'm chris jansing, 50 million people could get walloped by hurricane sandy. this storm is expected to have devastating impact in the mid-atlantic, the northeast, and the great lakes. it's throwing a wrench into the presidential race, too, with three key swing states in its path, virginia, ohio, new hampshire. these are pictures right now coming out of virginia beach. the president will not go to florida as was expected. instead, he's aboard air force one heading back to the white house monitoring this storm. this video came in just moments ago. the president also got a briefing from fema officials

yesterday and said the federal government is ready. >> my message to the governors as well as to the mayors is anything they need, we will be there. we're going to cut through red tape. we're not going to get bogged down with a lot of rules. we want to make sure we're anticipating and leaning forward. >> the romney campaign canceled his events in virginia yesterday. instead, he joined paul ryan on a bus tour of ohio. >> i know that right now some people in the country are a little nervous about a storm about to hit the coast, and our thoughts and prayers are with the people that find themselves in harm's way. >> of course, it couldn't come at a more important time politically. there's a new tracking poll out. it shows the president aahead of romney 49% to 48%. that's a three point swing in his direction from last week. before we get to politics, i want to bring in meteorologist

bill karins to give us the latest on the storm. bill, where sandy is taking a slight left turn, right? >> she started the turn. this is the amazing part of the storm, history-making part of the storm. what's incredible is this is still a hurricane towards the end of october, and not only is it still a hurricane, it looks like it strengthens before landfall. we have 10 hours to go before landfall. this may not be a hybrid storm at landfall. it may be a plain, old hurricane. look at what i'm talking about on the screen. i circled the eye of the storm. you can still clearly make out the eye, and there's new thunderstorms of convection firing up on the northwest corner of the eye. if that holds together to landfall, we will have a hurricane landfall. those are semantics. it doesn't really matter. that's for the history books. regardless, you have hurricane-force winds on the coast whether it's a hybrid or pure hurricane. winds gust to 60 to 80 miles per hour. we're entering that time frame where the power outages are going to get worse and worse and worse as the winds pick up.

i expect that peak power outages to go out from 4:00 p.m. until about midnight tonight. in other words, if you're in the new jersey area, maryland, delaware, long island, southern portions of new england, if you want to take a nice, warm shower because you may not have power for a week and be able to do so, i recommend you get that done now. you're about to possibly lose power in that high-impact area. the winds are starting to increase all the way up into areas of southern new england. wind gusts as far north as boston now at 46 miles per hour. it shows the scope and how immense and huge this storm is. martha's vineyard gusts of 51. widespread outages over long island and all of new jersey. new york city has gusted to 55 miles per hour. now we're at 45. we'll continue to see those increasing throughout the afternoon. even on the backside of this storm down through the chesapeake, it still has flooding problems around virginia beach and norfolk and through the chesapeake as we go through high tide cycle. the next high tide cycle is

later on this evening. that will be the one where we could possibly see historic damage and the new york city subways flood and areas of laguardia could see flooding. up and down the jersey coast, i'm concerned with barrier islands and finally chris you can see on the radar it's no day in the park from baltimore to d.c. you may not get the high winds but you get 6 to 12 inches of rain and flooding problems of your own. i didn't mention friends in west virginia dealing with a blizzard, and they'll end up with two feet of snow. if you're anywhere near this storm, you can't win. >> bill karins, thank you very much. i know we'll have updates throughout the day on msnbc. let me bring in dave wiigle and the white house report from "the washington post" david nakamura. good to see you both. good morning. president obama headed back to the capital. he'll keep tabs on the storm. let me play for you what joe biden said in new hampshire yesterday. >> the last thing the president and i want to do is have the cam

taken get in the way of anything. the most important thing is people's safety and people's health and property being saved here. >> dave wiegel, could this make-or-break his presidency? >> i think you're going to see a lot of wind breakers and north face jackets and fewer blazers and ties for a couple of days as he go it to these fema centers and does what he can, which is not a lot. he can stop in the path of the storm. the problem for obama that i see, and it's hard to ascertain for a couple of days how this affects him, is this a ground game campaign. they said this for a year. they're right. this campaign wins if it gets out votes at a more effective high rate than the romney campaign does. how does that change it if power goes out in places where people manage phone calms and charging up ipads door to door.

that is what i think would have people worried. more than where the president physically can campaign. how much money do they put into tv ads people won't be seeing. >> david, i wonder if to some extent the perception of how he does with this is out of his hands. how do you gauge how a voter will feel if he doesn't have power on the third or fourth or fifth day? does he blame the power company or state's governor or make him turn against government in general and the president? what do you think, david sf. >> absolutely. not only that, but if you have places like virginia, if there's damage to centers where people vote, if people deal with trees on theirous or power outages, it takes up the attention and they don't vote. that's a big concern as dave just said. the president has his surrogates out in some states trying to get the message for him. bill clinton is continues with the florida event. president obama probably made the right call to come back. it wouldn't look good if he continued with that event down in florida if people are pounded by rain. all attention will be on this

storm for a while, especially on the east coast, so he has a chance to get out there and be in front of the cam ras. we don't want to talk aboutfall politics in a natural disaster, but it will give him a chance to respond and look presidential. >> mitt romney had to cancel three events in virginia. the latest poll out of the state. he's closing the gap, although the president still has a four-point lead. how do you proceed if you're mitt romney? he doesn't have an official role, so is whatever he does open to criticism, or is it -- do you even morph through a political lens? where does mitt romney play through all of this. >> he can campaign in states not adversely affected by the storm. he can stay in ohio. i don't think there was any downside to spend more time in ohio and put in homilies in the speech how he was thinking of others in swing states. the danger is i don't think he'd do this with his own lips. his campaign staff answering

questions and talking about ways romney is reaching out to governors. there's nothing that this guy who hasn't been in government for seven years can do to emil rate this storm or nothing -- nobody benefits if he's in close touch with chris christie. chris christie needs to be in touch with the president. they can try to muddle it, but it's a minor risk. it's less of a risk that what can happen on the democratic side, and you risk looking arrogant like you're already president. will that move any votes? i don't know. you went to the news cycle to freeze in the rest of the country and be about the hurricane as you continue campaigning. >> we've also seen both sides suspend fund-raising. they say they will not send pitching to d.c., to virginia, to pennsylvania, north carolina, new jersey, although i do notice that new york is not on that list. a little bit interesting, david. >> that is a big center for the president. both campaigns, of course, and wall street.

these campaigns have a lot of money already. this is a chance to send messages to show their concern. it is, i'm sure, genuine, but it's a chance to reach voters and say donate to the red cross. i think obama campaign's said to the folks in these states. this is our chance to do that. they probably have enough money to deal with this. we learned in 2005 with katrina, if the federal response is sluggish or looks unprepared for this, that's a worse damage to the president than anything else, and i think that the president has to do this. he's canceled four events in four states over the next two days. right now he's scheduled to go to green bay at the end of the tuesday. we'll see if that happens. probably unlikely. he may start again on wednesday when he's supposed in ohio. >> although to his benefit you could argue in some of the key states, places like new york and new jersey and connecticut, they're very strong governors there who are experienced with this stuff and unlikely to fumble the response. we'll see how that goes. let's bring in congresswoman marcia blackburn, a republican from tennessee. what impact do you think this

storm will have to the presidential race? >> i'm not certain that it's going to have any direct impact. i will say that our thoughts and prayers are definitely with everyone and with the elected officials that are dealing with this response, with the emergency responders. i think that one of the things that people will do is look to see how individuals do respond to it. you know, there's so much you can do in a proactive stance, but that reactive stance is also what is going to be a determination and people want a level of preparedness and meeting expectations. >> let me ask you about some of the things going on on the campaign trail, and there's a controversy about mitt romney telling voters that jeep is going to move production to china. according to the company that's entirely false. is he lying about that? >> oh, well, i don't know. i haven't talked with with the campaign staff about that. i will say this. for workers in the auto industry, across the board,

whether it is gm, whether it's nissan, whether it's american motors, individuals are very concerned about the impact of regulation that the epa and osha and other federal agencies are heaping on our manufacturers. i hear this every day from my constituents who are incredibly concerned about this. i do have gm and nissan and toyota with bodine motors. everybody talks about this. it is the out-of-control regulation, the difficulty we have with trade issues right now. that's why mitt romney has laid out a plan to create 12 million american jobs making america more business-friendly and reducing this regulation. >> and yet, the numbers, the at least from chrysler, they felt so compelled about what mitt romney was saying on the campaign trail that they issued a statement to say, not only are they not moving jobs to china, in fact, the company has nuns

announced plans to hire an additional 12,000 workers in detroit. that will contradict what you say are concerns about auto workers? >> i don't see it as a contradiction at all. i think it is a testament to american ingeneral new at this time that people move forward to manufacture in this country. epa and government regulators are making it more and more difficult every single day. this is what we hear from so many of our manufacturers, large and small. >> let me really quickly play for you a clip that the president -- from the president's interview with joe and mica over the weekend. >> there's no doubt that the first order of business is to get our deficits and debt under control. the good thing is there's a forcing mechanism. the bush tax cuts end at end of the year. we have the sequester looming. that wouldn't be the right way

to do thing, takes a machete to something as opposed to a scalpel. after the election both democrats and republicans say this is something the country wants to solve. if i've won, then i believe that's a mandate for doing it in a balanced way. >> congresscomwoman if the president wins will they have to budge to raise taxes for the super wealthy to take care the debt? >> i think it's interesting to listen to his comments. basically the president's ideas on how to deal with an economy are an empty binder, if you will. we have brought forward item after item and suggestion after suggestion and bill after bill. we've passed bipartisan legislation in the house, and the senate won't take it up. what we need to do is make certain that we extend the bush tax cuts. we also want to go about closing some of the loopholes and primarily we have to cut federal

spending. federal spending is completely out of control and making some cuts into this baseline so that you're actually reducing what the federal government spends is imperative. this president has put more debt on the backs of future generations and on the american people than any other president in history. and we have to get the spending under control. i talk to women every day that say they have 16 trillion reasons to go to the poll and vote against this president because they are so fed up with this out of control spending. >> congresswoman, mash sha blackburn. good to see you. >> good to see you. thank you. >> dave, let me bring you back in. it's interesting he mentioned the debt as one of the first ish us he wants to tackle. >> the president signaled he has leverage with the bush tax cuts scheduled to expire. the president said let's

continue them for anybody making under $250,000 and republicans want to extend it for everybody. big leverage for the president win or lose. he's trying to use it. they're floating ideas that the white house might consider a new tax to replace it, the payroll tax that's supposed to expire. there's a lot to be said. the president is calling for a mandate. >> let me just ask you finally, dave, we mentioned that new political poll. the president up by one, three-point swing from last week but still a statistical dead heat. what do thele polls tell us at this point? >> i notice the congresswoman didn't spend yes or no when you asked her whether the jeep ad mitt romney is running is false. the answer is because the ad is mostly false. it doesn't say they're move yurg jobs to china. it said they're building jeeps in china. two independent things. the nervousness from an ad like that from the romney campaign, they can talk about how they surge ahead in ohio but they

clearly are not. the national polls that show romney doing well, a lot of what i hear it shows him rising in states that haven't seen advertising and people have warmed a bit to him. that doesn't matter. he's unable to break through the glass like he needs to in ohio. watch where the most campaigning happens as much as you watch the polls. >> he very good advice. thanks, guys. good to see you both. >> thank you. >> and we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] from our nation's networks... ♪ ...to our city streets... ♪ ...to skies around the world... ♪ ...northrop grumman's security solutions are invisibly at work, protecting people's lives... [ soldier ] move out! [ male announcer ] ...without their even knowing it. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman.

you won't just find us online, you'll also find us in person, with dedicated support teams

at over 500 branches nationwide. so when you call or visit, you can ask for a name you know. because personal service starts with a real person. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. our support teams are nearby, ready to help. it's no wonder so many investors are saying... [ all ] i'm with scottrade.

right now former president bill clin done is due to be in florida. has he made it yet? >> there he is. he's actually on time. president obama had to pull out of their first rally this season to deal with hurricane sandy. there's the former president by himself, and clinton arguably, his chief campaign weapon. we'll go ahead with appearances

in florida and ohio and virginia as well. let me bring in ann lewis, former communications director for president bill clinton and former senior adviser to hillary clinton's campaign. always good to see you, ann. good morning. >> good morning. >> with the president pulled off the campaign trail because of hurricane sandy, do you think it makes president clinton's presence even more crucial? >> it demonstrates bill clinton's value in this campaign. he's both the surrogate to get out there, maintain the level of excitement that you really want to keep your get out the vote program going, and at the same time and just as important he makes this substantive case for why barack obama deserves to be re-elected. i've done a lot of campaigns and done a lot of surrogate work. it is unusual to have a surrogate who has this level of stature and brings the excitement, too. >> which may be why the republicans frankly are trying to make something negative of all of bill clinton's appearances.

senator mccain says a lot of this has to do with hillary clinton maybe running in 2016. the rnc put out a press release today full of quotes saying that democrats are worried that clinton is outshining obama. he had the better speech at the convention and makes a better case for the obama record than the president does himself. is there a downside here? >> i got to say, those comments are pretty laughable. you may remember earlier in the campaign, the republicans tried to use bill clinton to complain about barack obama. after clinton spoke at the democratic convention, he gave a pourl and effective speech. republicans got silent on the subject. if all they do now is whine about him when he's one of our most popular former presidents, when he's the president with the economic record that really showed the kind of investing in america that president obama is now doing, works for us economically. if the republicans want to stand off in the background examiand ,

that speaks to where they are, but it doesn't say much to the american people. >> there's an article that matt bye wrote in the "new york times" that says bill clinton may have hurt the president's campaign by advising him the best way to go after mitt romney was to hang the sign of severe conservative around his neck. he should sell a romney presidency as a third term of george w. bush. would you agree with that line of attack has not worked? >> not only do i not agree with that line of aattack. look at conversations we're having. listen to what voters tell us. look at ohio where the fact mitt romney was against the auto bailout, that mitt romney writes an article and says let detroit go interrupt, that's a severely conservative position. the fact mitt romney said he wanted to see roe vs. wade overternove overturned, that's a seriously conservative position. the fact that is they're severely conservative and far away from where the majority of

the american people are. it's very important in this campaign that people understand their choices. >> bill clinton, obviously, very important to shore up the base. let's talk about the impact of hurricane sandy. do you agree that it could hurt the democrats more? that the obama campaign has depended so much on the ground game, and if that gets disrupted in some of these key states, it would be a disadvantage more to the president than it would be to romney "nightly newmitt romn? >> i will say the obama campaign has put together the most effective, well thought out and planned get out the vote campaign ground game i've ever seen, and i certainly hope it does not get severely disrupted. you know, if you're good and you're well-planned, and if you lose two days on the trail, you can make that up. if you lose two days, let's say, in turns out your vote, you can make that up. my home state of maryland is not exactly a swing state, but, in fact, we have canceled early voting there today. i have no doubt that we will make that up, and people who

were going to vote today will vote the rest of the week. i think very smart people, a lot of very smart people who worked very hard to get this ground game in place are going to be scrambling and working even harder for the rest of the week. >> more than two days you'll be worried? >> i want to say two things, chris. first, if it's more than two days, for each day it obviously gets harder to make it up on terms of early vote. think how many votes have already been cast. look at those pictures you saw of people in line in ohio. look at the pictures you saw of people in line in florida. i had a call from someone working in florida two days ago, i think now, and the lines were so long they were looking for people who would get out and talk to the people waiting in line. sort of working the line and telling stories, keeping people in place because it's so important. i'd say the early vote program began so well, has been so strong and powerful, if this had happened at an earlier time and really disrupted the early vote

program, it might have had an even bigger impact. as it is, looking at where we are, first, the president has his policies, his priorities right. let's make sure everybody is safe. that's why he's off the campaign trail. people's well-being comes first. after that i think we'll work doubly hard to get the vote in. >> ann lewis, former communications director for president bill clinton. always good to see you. thank you. >> we continue to keep our eye on hurricane sandy, which is causing a travel nightmare. almost 7,000 flights have been canceled across the country today. according to flightaware.com, united has the most cancellations, almost 800. if you fly in and out of the philadelphia airport, be warned, it has the most cancellations. if you think you'll travel by train, amtrak has canceled almost all of its service in the northeast. there is a great resource available for you to monitor hurricane sandy. check out weather.com. if you lose power and have internet service, weather.com will stream the weather channel

live. tor. i invest in what i know. i turned 65 last week. i'm getting married. planning a life. there are risks, sure. but, there's no reward without it. i want to be prepared for the long haul. i see a world bursting with opportunities. india, china, brazil, ishares, small-caps, large-caps, ishares. industrials. low cost. every dollar counts. ishares. income. dividends. bonds. i like bonds. ishares. commodities. diversification. choices. my own ideas. ishares. i want to use the same stuff the big guys use. ishares. 9 out of 10 large, professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. introducing the ishares core, etfs for the heart of your portfolio. tax efficient and low cost building blocks to help you keep more of what you earn. call your advisor. visit ishares.com. ishares. yeah, ishares. ishares by blackrock. call 1-800-ishares for a prospectus which includes investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. read and consider it carefully before investing.

wooohooo....hahaahahaha! oh...there you go. wooohooo....hahaahahaha! i'm gonna stand up to her! no you're not. i know. you know ronny folks who save hundreds of dollars switching to geico sure are happy. how happy are they jimmy? happier than a witch in a broom factory. get happy. get geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more.

we're keeping a close ois on hurricane sandy which made a left hook towards the east coast towards south jersey where it's expected to make landfall sometime later tonight. ron allen is on the point pleasant beach in new jersey. i'm told the storm is 250 miles away from the jersey coastline. how are things going there, ron? >> reporter: chris, the storm is already hitting here. the winds are gusting up it to 50 miles per hour or so. we've been watching the ocean for the past few days, and it's getting closer and closer. this dune is about 10 feet high, and this is what separates that from the town over in this direction. it's been completely evacuated, and it's a similar story up and down the jersey coast. about 1735 miles of oceanfront property. some is cut off because roads headed in this direction is closed by the governor.

the problem is we see inland flooding on that side. there's a bay and river over there, and the concern is the two waterways come together and connect. there's some flooding up in that direction that's already plaguing the town. so the situation here getting worse already by the day. the rain is now falling, and it's falling sideways because it's hitting so hard. even though i've been standing out here, i can tell you the winds are picking up and certainly things get worse by the hour. >> ron allen, take care out there. thank you so much. if you read only one thing this morning, my must read is from the "l.a. times." it's an article about how paul ryan is taking a lower profile as mitt romney sells a more moderate vision. it's up on our facebook page at facebo facebook faceboo facebook/jansingco.

busy in here. yeah. progressive mobile is... [ "everybody have fun tonight" plays ] really catching on! people can do it all! get a quote, buy and manage your policy! -[ music stops ] -it's great! well, what's with the... -[ music resumes ] -music? ♪ have fun tonight dude. getting a car insurance quote. i'll let it go to voicemail. [ clears throat ] ♪ everybody wang chung tonight ♪ putting it on vibrate. [ cell phone vibrates ] -[ loud vibrating ] -it'll pass. [ vibrating continues ] our giant store and your little phone. that's progressive mobile. it's generally regarded as the most critical of the toss-up states. ohio is at dead even.

president obama had a five-point lead last month. vice president biden will join bill clinton in youngstown this afternoon. on the stump last night romney reached out to 2008 hillary clinton supporters. >> your friends may have votesed last time in the democratic primary. who knows, they may have voted for hillary clinton or barack obama. they may have voted for then candidate obama in the final election, and you need to convince them to vote for paul ryan and me. >> there's a real good feeling throughout this thing. these old buckeyes kind of see it clear. no, i really mean it. they can cut through a lot of this stuff. >> let's bring in john feary and david goodfriend. good to see you, gentlemen. good morning. david, let me ask you about mitt romney as appeal to hillary clinton veeters. could he pick off moderate

democrats? >> no. in order to be a hillary clinton voter you see the world a lot differently than mitt romney says he does. i think the divisiveness the romney campaign has shown economically and frankly when it comes to women's issues, it's going to drive people back into the obama camp. it's an interesting thing, because he may very well have had a shot at some of the moderate democratic voters in ohio, but i think his campaign has stumbled in that it never shown itself to be an open, big tent for moderates. it's still very conservative, severely conservative as mitt romney might say, and taehat's going to drive hillary clinton voters back into the fold with the democratic party. i'm privacy in internal p polls in ohio. i can't speak about the specifics, and i'll smiling. the margin is better. ohio is much more in play, especially when the consider how early voting is outperforming in the heavily democratic precincts in at that state.

i'm optimistic about ohio. >> john, was that a chuckle? >> i'm optimistic on my side. i think the hillary clinton voters, that was a vote not for hillary clinton, but it was largely a vote against barack obama. a lot of those voters will say, barack obama is -- we can't afford four more years of this guy. they'll go with mitt romney. mitt romney has done a good job attacking through the middle. there's a lot more enthusiasm with republican voters. i haven't totaled polls. i've looked at them. my guys are smiling, too. i think ohio is going to go romney's way and i think that it's going to be one of those things that if you have somebody like rob portman working so closely with the romney campaign leading the charge, very popular senator, i think they'll do well in ohio. >> john, you have been getting bad press, the republicans have for this new ad running in ohio. let me play a little bit of it for you. >> who will do more for the auto industry? not barack obama. obama took gm and chrysler into

bankruptcy and sold chrysler to italians who are going to build jeeps in china. mitt romney will fight for every american job. >> chrysler thought that ad was so misleading they put out a statement making the point that, in fact, they're adding 1100 jobs in detroit and any jeeps that are made in china are for the people of china. was that a mistake on their part? a lot of newspapers have fact-checked that, john, and said it just isn't so. >> the truth hurts, huh? he did sell chrysler to the italians and they own it. i think this is an important point, because mitt romney did say that his plan would be better for the auto industry. now, i'm someone who is pro-bailout when the bush administration did it. i think he had to bail out. i think that mitt romney believed you had to work to save those jobs. it was a different approach, but i think that that is a critical voting bloc. i also think that the coal vote is a critical vote in ohio. those folks will start coming

mitt romney's way. >> there are conservative swaths in ohio. you know that very well, david, and you know that's one of the areas where mitt romney has been hitting hard, which is in coal country. i mean, obviously you're smiling, but are you saying you don't see a path for mitt romney to win ohio? >> well, i'm smiling because i'm still spinning from john's answer about the auto bailout. man, that's some good spin, john. voters are smarter than that, and they can see that barack obama's plan to help the auto industry has paid off in jobs in ohio. believe me, i come from the industrial midwest. people remember who helped them save their jobs. now, look, there's something else we're not mentioning here that plays directly into the ohio race, and that's the senate race going on there. brown who is a wonderful senator and fantastic candidate who took votes all along the eastern border of ohio, well better than most democrats do, he's ahead. he's going to beat josh mendel in that senate race. i think you'll see reverse

coattails and sherrod brown, who is a fantastic senate candidate, win. and that's going to help barack obama. people will see both names on the ballot rather, and they're going to strovote for both of t. it will help get president obama over the finish line in ohio. >> we'll be watching. thank you, gentlemen. new details surrounding hurricane sandy. we heard that the holland tunnel and brooklyn battery tunnel will close in manhattan at 2:00 this afternoon. parts of lower manhattan are already taking on a little water. anne thompson is at new york city's battery park right now. what's the situation? >> hey, chris. we've got new information that the fdr, that is the eastbound highway on -- east side highway on manhattan is going to close. it's currently closed from east 61st street to 116th street. the city government says we can expect further lane closures in

the area. this is why. the water is coming up. we're here at new york harbor. the statue of liberty and over there is ellis island. high tide was here at 8:35 and this water breached the southern tip of the promenade here way down here where you see that man on the bicycle. right now the waters are much calmer here. we have seen big swells. we saw whitecaps earlier. there are very few boats here today. a couple of tugs and police boats, but that's all the activity we've seen in the water. we have seen some debris get swept up as the water level has risen. as far as people go, because we've had a little break in the weather, weenl only got a light mist and the winds have died down somewhere. we see a lot of the curious come out, the few that have not evacuated this part of manhattan. battery park is in zone a, an area where mayor bloomberg has

ordered people to evacuate. most people have heeded that warning. i can tell you by looking at the skyscrapers because we didn't see a whole lot of lights on. a few stayed because irene wasn't so bad. they're going to take their chances on sandy. mayor bloomberg says that's the worst thing you can do, because when you get in trouble and call for help, you're not only endangering your life, you you endanger the life of the emergency responder who comes to help you. chris, back to you. >> they have a lot of shelters set up. anne thompson, thank you so much for the update. we should mention in sports the san francisco giants are world series champs for the second time in three years. they beat the detroit tigers 4-3 in game four last night. a sweep of the series. back in manhattan sandy shut down the stock market. this is the first time this has happened since 9/11. mandy drury is here. could be closed tomorrow i

understand. >> that's right, chris. if the nyse is closed tomorrow as well, that's the first time since 1888 that a weather-related event has caused a two-day shutdown. the last time was a blizzard that left drifts as high as 40 feet in the streets of new york city. chris, there have been plans to allow electronic trading to go forward today on the new york stock exchange. as we were just hearing a moment ago, with all the mass transit shut down in and out of manhattan, the risks were determined to be too great. we have to wait and see what happens tomorrow. >> this wide swath of the east coast, the mid-atlantic up into my neck of the woods in the great lakes area, a lot of people not going to work. a lot of people not out shopping. what do we know about the potential financial impact? >> the impact we've seen so far is the u.s. dollar is higher, so a lot of commodities are under pressure. wti is even getting hit because -- this is an interesting thing. because concerns are mounting about the economic impact from sandy.

gasoline is jumping higher at this stage because you have refineries along the northeast that are closing down. it may be short-lived, though, because there could be big demand. remember, a lot of people aren't hitting the roads. we have to see if there's any sustained damage to oil infrastructure. as for the economic toll, we have to wait and see. at this stage it's just speculation in terms of dollars and cents. back to you. >> thanks so much. we can put sandy into perspective, though. here's a look at some of the nation's most expensive hurricanes. number five was charley in 2004. 8.5 billion, number four is wilma in 2005, 11.3 bill, ike in 200811.7 billion and andrew is number two and not a surprise the most expensive hurricane in history was katrina, more than $45 billion in damage. ess on fes ess on fes and more... on what matters? maybe your bank account is taking too much time and maybe it's costing too much money.

introducing bluebird by american express and walmart. your alternative to checking and debit. it's loaded with features, not fees. because we think your money should stay where it belongs. with you. the value you expect. the service you deserve. it feels good to bluebird. get it at your local walmart. then you may be looking for help in choosing the right plan for your needs. so don't wait. call now. whatever your health coverage needs, unitedhealthcare can help you find the right plan. open enrollment to choose your medicare coverage begins october 15th and ends december 7th. so now is the best time to review your options and enroll in a plan. medicare has two main parts, parts a and b, to help cover a lot of your expenses, like hospital care... and doctor visits. but they still won't cover all of your costs. now's the time to learn about unitedhealthcare plans that may be right for you.

are you looking for something nice and easy? like a single plan that combines medicare parts a & b with prescription drug coverage? a medicare advantage plan can give you doctor, hospital and prescription drug coverage all in one plan... for nothing more than what you already pay for part b. you'll also have the flexibility to change doctors from a network of providers dedicated to helping you stay healthy. plus with the pharmacy saver program, you can get prescriptions for as low as $2 at thousands of pharmacies in retail locations like these, all across the country. call now to learn more. unitedhealthcare has the information you need so you'll be better prepared when making medicare decisions. maybe you'd just like help paying for your prescriptions. consider a part d prescription drug plan. it may help reduce the cost of your prescription drugs. with over 30 years of medicare experience, unitedhealthcare has been helping people live

healthier lives. remember, open enrollment ends friday, december 7th. we can help. call unitedhealthcare to learn about medicare plans that may be right for you. call now. ♪ we know at this point it's aum about turnout.

a new poll finds enthusiasm among latino voters up compared to just two months ago. they find 45% of latino voters say they're more likely to vote, up 8% from just ten weeks ago. the poll also found support for the president matching an all-time high this year with 73% choosing president obama. let me bring in msnbc and nbc latino contributor victoria defrancesco soto, a senior fellow at the university of texas. >> greetings from austin, chris. >> an article in "the washington post" talked about president obama's election strategist david plouffe being so crucial. it depends on plouffe's ability to activate the latino, african-american and young voters who have a more erratic track record shows up at the polls and thus often not up counted as likely voters. the article says plouffe took that voter base for granted.

do you agree with the poll. are you sengsing growing enthusiasm among latino voters? >> we're seeing growing enthusiasm, and in particular we see that enthusiasm grow over the past ten weeks. latino decisions has been tracking latino enthusiasm for the past ten weeks. it started out at lower level and increased at 8% to where 45% of latino are more enthusiasm about 2008. right now for 2012 we see 60% saying they're very enthusiastic, but what's most important here is in the battleground states, nevada, florida, we're seeing that rate even higher. upwards of 70% of latinos saying they're enthusiastic. that's crucial for the obama cam taken to clench the electoral votes they new. >> a pew hispanic center said education and the economy pr the top two. you might think based on overall polls we see that will fit with

governor romney. when the largest spanish newspaper in the country endorsed obama last week, they did it because of romney's economic pitch. why do they see it different than the rest of the country? >> this latest poll shows that 73% of latinos trust obama and the democrats to improve the economic situation. so the economy is the number one concern for latinos, and it has been for a long part of this campaign. they just do not buy the smaller government argument, and we know this from years of polling. latinos in general prefer a more active government, especially when it comes to health care, especially in terms of medicaid. so here latinos are not voting for the democrats for that one single issue for immigration. it's he economically driven like it is for the rest of lakt ra electorate. >> you talked about the battleground states. the president won the hispanic vote by about 2:1 in 2008.

>> in florida its going to be really interesting to see bought of the diversity of the latino population there. it's not just the cuban base in south florida. since 2000 there's a booming population of puerto ricans in south florida. they're going to want to cast their ballot and show they have the clout in central florida, and it's not just concentrated down in miami. >> how much do you think the president's promise in 2008 of immigration reform might have sort of made people less enthusiastic or could not -- might make the margin less than the obama campaign would like to see? he did tell "the des moines register" he'll confident eeg going to achieve immigration reform lass year, but are a lot of latinos saying i heard that in 2008? >> absolutely, chris. they've heard that, and they're forgiven and haven't forgotten. right in and out the focus is on the economy. an interesting statistic in the

latest poll was over a third of latinos say if president obama gets re-elected, he's not going to do anything. so apathy with regards to immigration and the same thing with romney. right now the focus is on the economy and latinos also know that immigration right now is dictated largely at the on local level because there's a stalemate in washington. i think the eye is on the state legislatures rather than on congress or the executive. even if president obama gets re-elected, he's likely going to have the same makeup in congress. >> victoria defrancesco soto, thanks so much. >> we're having fun with newark's mayor and his tendency to pitch in when bad weather strikes. dave weigel writes hurricane hitting new jersey. cory booker was hastily removing shirt and running into phone booths. there's a great resource available, check out weather.com. if you lose power and have

internet service, weather.com will stream the weather channel live. s copies of my acceptance speech. great! it's always good to have a backup plan, in case i get hit by a meteor. wow, your hair looks great. didn't realize they did photoshop here. hey, good call on those mugs. can't let 'em see what you're drinking. you know, i'm glad we're both running a nice, clean race. no need to get nasty. here's your "honk if you had an affair with taylor" yard sign. looks good. [ male announcer ] fedex office. now save 50% on banners. stop! stop! stop! come back here! humans -- we are beautifully imperfect creatures living in an imperfect world. that's why liberty mutual insurance has your back with great ideas like our optional better car replacement. if your car is totaled, we give you the money to buy one a model year newer. call... and ask one of our insurance experts about it today. hello?!

we believe our customers do their best out there in the world, and we do everything we can to be there for them when they need us. [car alarm blaring] call now and also ask about our 24/7 support and service. call... and lock in your rate for 12 months today. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy?

we continue 20 track hurricane sandy. we're getting word of more travelle shutdowns in new york city. they're closing the holland and brooklyn battery tunnels. boston is shutting down its transit system at 2:00 this afternoon. these are the latest satellite images you're looking at. that storm moving northwest at 20 miles per hour. sandy is bringing snow, and we're getting the first pictures of that in now. these are from huntington, west virginia, sandy's prompted blizzard warnings throughout that state. we'll keep you poetsed throughout the day on msnbc. that wraps up this hour of jansing and kp. >> the agenda next hour, minutes away from the national center's latest update on hurricane sandy. this bizarre monster storm continues to intensify and spin in the atlantic. 12 states declare emergencies

instructing millions to seek safer and higher ground. meanwhile, the president is off the campaign trail returning to washington to monitor the storm, oversee emergency operations and the national response by fema. meanwhile, mitt romney is staying on the trail in the battleground of ohio. with eight days to go, will sandy be the real october surprise for both campaigns? we'll bring you the details about what's going on with this storm and the political discussion, the implications along with it as well coming your way next. ed androgel 1%, there's big news. presenting androgel 1.62%. both are used to treat men with low testosterone. androgel 1.62% is from the makers of the number one prescribed testosterone replacement therapy. it raises your testosterone levels, and... is concentrated, so you could use less gel. and with androgel 1.62%, you can save on your monthly prescription. [ male announcer ] dosing and application sites between these products differ. women and children should avoid contact with application sites.

discontinue androgel and call your doctor if you see unexpected signs of early puberty in a child, or, signs in a woman which may include changes in body hair or a large increase in acne, possibly due to accidental exposure. men with breast cancer or who have or might have prostate cancer, and women who are, or may become pregnant or are breast feeding should not use androgel. serious side effects include worsening of an enlarged prostate, possible increased risk of prostate cancer, lower sperm count, swelling of ankles, feet, or body, enlarged or painful breasts, problems breathing during sleep, and blood clots in the legs. tell your doctor about your medical conditions and medications, especially insulin, corticosteroids, or medicines to decrease blood clotting. talk to your doctor today about androgel 1.62% so you can use less gel. log on now to androgeloffer.com and you could pay as little as ten dollars a month for androgel 1.62%. what are you waiting for? this is big news.

i'm thomas roberts. nearly the entire eastern seaboard impacted by what is proving to an epic megastorm. hurricane sandy this hour is a monster system, the effects of which can be felt from new york to delaware to virginia and all the way down to north carolina. this storm has picked up speed and taken a turn towards the new jersey coastline. states emergency have been declared in 12 states